Bmw Kalahari Boots
BMW Kalahari Boots
CW EVALUATIONS
Das Boot
IT SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING THAT these boots, basically old-style enduro
footwear made streetable, are not what you want for tap-dancing a GSX-R1000 in the twisty-turnies-besides, there’s not enough articulated plasti-chrome armor cladding for that crowd. Likewise, serious dual-sporters will want something a little more dirt-oriented (not to mention more colorful). But if you’re in need of a highquality, heavy-duty, all-weather boot in basic black, BMW has you covered.
The Kalahari is stoutly constructed of 2.5mm-thick leather, with interior armor at the ankle and shin, kevlar stretch panels in the arch and tendon areas, a steel toecap and a shifter-scuff pad. Two ski-boot-style ratchets cinch the front flap closed; velcro and an elastic cuff accommodate calves of varying thickness. While the ratchets can be a little fiddly and take some practice to master one-handed (a problem addressed in the Savanna boot, which supersedes the Kalahari), once everything is tightened down, your feet feel damn-near bulletproof in these boots.
Damn-near waterproof, too. The Kalaharis have a sewn-in Gore-Tex lining that we were ready to pronounce perfect-until a certain 10-hour Alps ride in fog and driving rain, which
DETAILS
BMW Riders' Apparel 9320 Annapolis Rd. #210 Lanham, MD 20706 866/426-9432 www.bmwridersappare.com Price $325
Ups Steel toecaps excellent in bar fights Street boot that's not afraid of the dirt
owns Steel toecaps not so excellent balancing a tall GS at stoplights Not ideal for off-bike hiking Confused lineage: Germany company, African name, Italian-made
resulted in slight seepage into the toebox. At this point, our boots were a year old and we’d done nothing in the way of leather maintenance, so out came something called “Aqueous Wax” by Nikwax (wwxv.nikwaxusa.com), a British product (they know from rain) specifically designed for GoreTex-lined footwear. Ten-hour deluges being in short supply in Southern California, we subjected the treated boots to a severe garden-hosing, and came away with completely dry tootsies.
You’ll have to figure out BMW’s wacky foot-measuring system (Euro sizes 36-48) and at three bills plus, these boots ain’t cheap. But like the bikes the company sells, the Kalaharis offer good value for the money. We can’t speak for resale prices... U
